Indie Video Game Development Work: Innovation in the Creative Economy

Introduction                                       15 pages, 6,000 words

The ethnographer's dilemma: To understand a world that is not your own while avoiding to misrepresent it

 

The introduction addresses methodological concerns pertaining to an ethnographic study of a professional community that take pride in being integrated on basis of the shared love of video games. Referencing e.g., anthropological literature, the introduction emphasizes how the video game community has been systematically portrayed as being engaged in a pastime that is determined by a masculine adolescent culture, and that this community is treated as a "subculture of geeks," making fantasy and escapism a source of entertainment. This overtly skeptical view of video games should per se be subject to scholarly reflection, and consequently the ethnographer's challenge is to account for the development activities in ways that move beyond such ready-made and inherited images of the industry. As these methodological and study design related issues is central to the study and the volume, this concern is addressed in the very beginning of the volume rather than being located in an appendix or as a separate methodology chapter.

 

 

PART I: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES

 

Chapter One                                      25 pages, 10,000 words

Governing innovation-led economies: The economics of business creation

 

The first chapter of the theoretical part of the volume discuss the concept of innovation-led growth (as opposed to imitation-led growth) as an economic regime that demand certain economic policies and an institutional framework supportive of risk taking and enterprising. To stage the video game industry and the indie developer as a knowledge-intensive and professional domain of development work and economic value creation, the broader institutional framework needs to be sketched. The chapter addresses entrepreneurial activities, venture capital supply, and the various state-controlled support activities that are part of an innovation-led growth regime. By and large, Chapter One provides the economic and financial background for the video game industry and indie development activities.

 

 

Chapter Two                                                 25 pages, 10,000 words

Deeply meaningful work and the passionate worker

 

The second chapter of Part I examines the motivational and affective conditions that pertain to video game development activities. Virtually all interviewees argued that they had a dream of becoming a video game developer at an early age, and their career choice is thus consistent with what has been called "deeply meaningful work." The scholarly literature indicates that innovation-led economic growth is premised on the enterprising individual's capacity to commit him or herself to activities that are uncertain and rewarded only after the fact. In this situation, a commitment to a line of work reduces entry barriers and nourishes an industry or community culture wherein identities and passion are key analytical components, potentially explaining long-term success and economic growth in a sector of the economy. The chapter thus examines the sociological and behavioural aspects of indie development work.

 

 

 

PART II: EMPIRICAL STUDIES

 

The empirical studies part of the proposed volume includes four chapters that address distinctive features of the indie development industry.

 

Chapter Three                                               20 pages, 8,000 words

Sorting out the indie developer

One characteristic of emerging industries and markets is the absence of stabilized and precise analytical categories. Ongoing change and modifications in the market preclude any fixed nomenclature within which industry actors or market species are classified. In the domain of indie video game development, the term "indie" is widely used to denote a specific class of developers, and yet there are considerable ambiguities involved when defining the term. The first empirical chapter examines how industry actors portray and characterize the indie developer and how they distinguish between different industry actors. The outcome is a more complicated image of the video development industry wherein different classes of actors are interrelated, collaborating, or bundled in various ways.

 

 

Chapter Four                                                20 pages, 8,000 words

The ambiguity of money-making

The fourth chapter addresses how the passionate commitment of indie developers includes a skeptical attitude towards the commercial aspects of video game development. As opposed to many other activities with an artistic and aesthetic orientation, demanding tax-money financing or patronage, video game development has from the outset been propelled by market transactions and a commercial logic. Yet, indie developers' stated love of video games imposes attitudinal and identity-based barriers against a strictly commercial view of video game. In the eyes of many indie developers, video games is a means of expression, and artistic accomplishment, and a source of entertainment, or combinations thereof. Consequently, video games cannot be consciously designed and developed on basis of the sole purpose to maximize revenues as that would violate the sub-cultural ideology of the gamer community. In contrast, making money after the game is released is widely regarded as an honorable accomplishment, not the least because such revenue streams would finance new development projects. The chapter addresses this ambiguous view of commercial activities as being part of the affective commitment to video game development as professional practice and artistic expression.

 

 

Chapter Five                                      20 pages, 8,000 words

Raising venture capital and dealing with investors

The fifth chapter of the volume further explores how indie developers relate to the commercial and financial aspects of their professional domain of work. Video game development is an essentially profitable industry that reports remarkable high-growth figures and that offers a number of success stories about individual developers who turn billionaire celebrities virtually overnight as they release hugely popular games (most notably the case of Markus, "Notch" Persson, whose game Minecraft made him a millionaire in a short period of time, and eventually sold his company Mojang to Microsoft for a record level sum of money). Yet, individual indie developers, especially in the early stages, encounter considerable challenges when they raise their first funds. However, a combination of self-financing, outsourcing work, grants from state-backed innovation agencies, investment form publishers and other video game companies, and a variety of other sources can supply the funds needed to develop the first video game. The chapter examines how indie developers cope with these challenges and how they make tactic and strategic decisions to adjust their development work to the existing financial situation.

 

Chapter Six                                                    20 pages, 8,000 words

Expanding the video game concept: The perceptual and epistemological bases of the digital objects

 

The final chapter of the empirical studies part of the proposed volume addresses how indie developers regard the future of the video game and how they actively employ game design and gaming technology to further develop the digital medium of the video game. In this context, indie developers not only regard video game as a medium that provide a game experience that includes competitive situations and challenges or assignments to be solved. Instead, video games can serve as platforms for more experienced-based or explorative activities, i.e., digital objects that escape the conventional meaning of video games to provide alternative experiences and/or to pursue cultural or political objectives. As indie developers enact identities for themselves as being in part of the creative fringe of an industry, increasingly being bound up with the development models and the financial setup that it has defined for itself, novel thinking and experimental activities are widely embraced in the community. Furthermore, as video game development become increasingly standardized, there is a need for new ideas and creative experimentation, all industry actors emphasize. The final chapter thus sketches possible routes into the future for an industry that is on the verge of becoming more limited and narrowly focused on basis of its own commercial success.

 

 

Chapter Seven                                               20 pages, 8,000 words

Passionate production and the moral order: The future of innovation-led growth?

 

The final chapter of the volume discusses the practical, theoretical, and policy-relevant implications of the empirical study of indie development work. Innovation-led growth is stipulated to be based on the individual's passionate commitment to a professional activity, and by implication it is difficult for formulate and implement economic policy that directly generates such identities and attitudes, supportive of innovative output. In fact, several of the interviewees referred to the broader institutional setting of the welfare state, including health care provision, free schooling, a generous student loan system, and so forth, as being a key explanatory factor for the success of the Swedish video game industry. At the same time, the ability to pool risks between market-based actors and tax-payers are not a sufficient condition for innovation-led growth. Also transparent legislation and law enforcement, a reliable institutional framework including innovation agencies, incubators, and science parks, and a supply of venture capital and grants financing the development work are needed. In the end, innovation-led growth is a consequence of a variety of integrated and mutually constitutive conditions that incentivize individuals to pursue careers wherein artistic and creative skills are exploited.

            The last sections of the chapter address theoretical contributions, and emphasize the implications for policy making. Future research activities that enfold a study of professional communities and economic growth are outlined.